Eastside Highway through Stevensville
Motorists in the Stevensville area will need to exercise caution while driving through Stevensville beginning Wednesday, May 20. The Montana Department of Transportation is updating sidewalk corners along Secondary 269 (Main Street) through downtown Stevensville in conjunction with planned pavement preservation efforts. Approximately 20 curb ramps are being updated as part of MDT’s Americans with Disabilities Act Transition Plan in their ongoing efforts to provide greater accessibility to residents and visitors. The updates to the sidewalk corners will allow all users to more easily get on and off sidewalks, including people with disabilities, parents with strollers, small children on bikes, delivery drivers and older adults.
The new curbs will have gentler slopes to ease a wheeled device down and new landing areas at the top where pedestrians can turn to access the sidewalk. A tool to help people with vision impairments is also being installed at the updated street corners. Called “detectable warnings,” the colored and textured surfaces will be installed in the areas where the curb ramp connects with the street. These features provide a sensory warning to users with vision impairments, alerting them that they are entering a roadway where vehicle traffic is present.
The new street corners are also designed to limit water pooling in areas where the curb ramp transitions into the roadway.
MDT uses a streamlined construction process to upgrade curb ramps, reducing the time required to finish these improvements. Work will be done during the day, so the public is asked to prepare for noise disturbances, minor pedestrian detours, and some parking disturbances. But both lanes will be open and vehicle traffic will not be delayed.
The ADA curb improvement project will last from two to three weeks.
Work on these improvements will be followed in mid-July by a pavement preservation project on the Eastside Highway that begins about 1.2 miles south of Stevensville and goes north through town. The milling and paving is expected to take a total of 10 to 12 days to complete. A significant portion will be done at night to minimize the impacts on daytime work traffic. Chip sealing is scheduled for August and will be done in the daytime.
A bridge guardrail installation is also planned along the Stevensville Cut-Off Road in mid-June. The guard rail on a small bridge on a side channel of the river will be replaced. The work will be done in the daytime and a stop light will be erected at the site and traffic will be reduced to a single lane.
Highway 93
A milling and paving project is also planned for Highway 93 from the McCalla Creek Bridge south of the Stevensville cut-off intersection, to North Kootenai Creek Road north of the intersection. This work will begin in late July and be done at night. Traffic will be reduced to one lane in both directions. Chip sealing is scheduled for August and will be done in the daytime.
Lost Trail Pass
A paving and milling project is also scheduled in June for Highway 93 at Lost Trail Pass, beginning at the Idaho border and going north about 8.9 miles. Some guardrail work will also be done. The chip seal is scheduled for August. The milling and paving work will be done at night and the chip seal will be during the day with single lane traffic using a pilot car.